


Weekdays

by winterhats



Category: Kagerou Project, Mekakucity Actors
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Teachers, F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 09:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15748506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterhats/pseuds/winterhats
Summary: Takane is the computer science teacher, Haruka is the math teacher. Neither of them like their jobs.(An AU nobody asked for).





	Weekdays

**Author's Note:**

> No one asked for this AU, you say. I don't care, I say.
> 
> I forgot how much fun it is to write from Takane's point of view! She's such a fun character to be honest...
> 
> Sorry for any typos, as usual. I'm just a very clumsy writer, even if I did edit this. There's probably a ton of mistakes left lmao, sorrysorrysorry!
> 
> AND YES I KNOW IT'S LONG BUT IT'S ME

"Miss?"

She takes a tighter hold of the chalk, stopping the hand that was quickly writing words on the blackboard. She feels her eyebrow twitching in her face as she was putting all of her willpower into not displaying an annoyed face at the owner of the voice, so Takane turns around to face her class with a forced smile.

She doesn't sugarcoat her glare at the student who spoke, though, "I hope this has something to do with the lesson, Kano."

He was probably the most annoying being that has came to existence, so she obviously doubted that his intentions were something other than, well, be a nuisance.

 _Keep it together_ , she told herself, trying not to jump to conclusions. _Maybe, just maybe, he'll ask a question related to the subject._

The aforementioned only smiled that smile of his, and she felt her face twitch again. That wasn't the face of someone who wants to ask something about computer science.

"I wanted to ask you how you spent your night!"

_Oh, how I hate highschool kids._

Takane, now letting go of every effort she was making to avoid a tired expression, massages the bridge of her nose in frustation, "It was fine, Kano."

She didn't even care why he was asking, to be honest. Today is Tuesday, which meant she had class in the first period, which meant it was very early, which meant she was tired as hell. And of course she was cursed enough to deal with this particular class at this ungodly hour, where the annoying Kano Shuuya (known in the teachers' lounge as that one kid who ate glue once) is in.

Usually, she tolerated the kid. When his stupid comments weren't directed at her, he managed to be funny and not that bad in the subject. She knew he didn't particularly dislike her, either, since he was very aware that she often noticed he'd play cards in the computer instead of doing the assignment she gave and she still didn't say anything.

"Hoho, I'm _sure_  it was!"

Alas, her very considerated teaching ways didn't seem to be enough to get the kid off Takane's back. What the hell did he mean by that?

"Kano, shut up!" the student sitting next to him whispers with a deathly voice. Kido Tsubomi, Takane remembers her name mostly because during the classes she'd allow the students to listen to music, the girl always chooses music she also likes. Kido elbows Kano in the ribs, quickly turning to their teacher with an apologetic face. "Ignore him, miss. He's just being an idiot."

She hisses the last part directly at her friend's face.

"No, I will not ignore him," Takane offers a murderous grin, resting her hips on her desk. She gestures at him to proceed, "Go ahead, Kano. What makes you ask me that?"

Normally, she'd ignore him, but she wanted to see just how much trouble was Kano willing to put himself in this early in the day. ...And maybe she was also a bit curious.

The boy nervously glances around, getting fidgety all of a sudden (probably because of her scary attitude), but he tried to keep his cool, "Well, since you went home with Mr. Kokonose yesterday–"

He doesn't say the rest, letting her assume it by herself. She thinks for a moment.

Yesterday. She gave Haruka a ride home yesterday. Kano must've seen them get in the car together. Takane, suddenly, had no idea how to handle this situation.

She feels the blood rush to her face at the stupid kid's implication, but she's an _adult_ and she can't afford getting all defensive over something like this, and especially not with a highschool class she was supposed to be teaching. So as much as she wanted to scream explanations such as "it wasn't like that!", she doesn't.

Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is sending him to Kenjirou's office, but Jesus Christ that's a terrible idea. She prefers death than to deal with Kenjirou knowing about her friendship with Haruka. She'd never hear the end of his teasing. This is one of the bad things about being on personal terms with the headmaster; she knew her former teacher would laugh at Kano's comment and send him away with no consequences.

Takane takes a deep breath, looking for all of her strength to handle this like an _adult_.

"Haruka and I are friends, you see," she explains, with the calmest voice she could pull off and a no-big-deal tone to convince the kids she was nowhere near feeling flustered. She was not going to give Kano the enjoyment of teasing her. Whispers immediately flood the classroom as soon as she starts, though, so she raises her voice just slightly so it could be heard through it, "So I gave him a ride home, because I'm amazing like that. And I actually don't need to give these explanations at all, as this is _none_  of your business, so watch it before saying something else if you don't wanna end up in Mr. Tateyama's office."

_Please, please don't make me make you end up in his office._

The whispers decrease. Kano raises both of his hands as if admitting defeat, but his face continued to show amusement.

"Alright, sorry Teach," he said. "Hmmm, you really are amazing though! _Haruka_  must be happy to have a friend like you."

When giggles fill the room, Takane almost breaks the chalk she was holding in half. She had called these kids' math teacher by his first name.

* * *

 

Enomoto Takane has always hated school.

She hated getting up early, the pressure of studying and studying in the first place. She hated her classmates no matter which year or group it was. She hated the educational system and most adults who worked in the facility.

 _So, of all things_ , she lamented to herself, _why did I become a teacher?_

Because among the various things Takane hates, she also hates her job.

It wasn't like she was searching for an answer as to _why_  she had the job she had, she obviously knew that very well, but it didn't make her hate it any less.

Glaring at the ungraded papers on her desk, Takane sighed. As she was in the teachers' lounge, which was (duh) full of teachers, she couldn't even sleep on her desk or something like that to mentally prepare herself for the atrocities her students must've written on their tests.

Ugh, but she's been procrastinating them enough, and that's usually okay, but when it gets to the point where the kids race her in the hallway to ask her when she's going to give back their grades, she knows it's been long enough. As she grabs the pen, Takane swallows back a complaint and the urge to bang her head against the desk since, again, she's at the teachers' lounge. She couldn't whine to herself as she got things done. All the suffering will have to be internal, as usual.

The door suddenly slides open; the math teacher rushed in, holding a very untidy pile of papers in his hands as he closed the door behind him.

He smiles politely to the other teachers, probably not realising they were glaring because of the mess he looked like rather than greeting him. Takane just watches him as he puts down all of the papers on the desk next to hers, grabbing a pen as soon as he sits down.

She takes the chance to prolong grading the papers, "Are those tests?"

Kokonose Haruka looks back at her with surprise in his eyes, but it's quickly gone once she gives a small smile as a greeting. He smiles back, happily returning his attention to the matter at hand.

"Yes! They _just_  finished them, so I can't wait to see how they did!"

_He's as enigmatic as ever, I see._

She wished she could have some of that enthusiasm to grade her tests, too...

She'd like Haruka to not be busy so they could talk or something, but he seemed too engrossed in seeing how his class did. His interest in his work was one of the things Takane didn't like about her coworker, but she couldn't give herself the luxury of passing up friends. She has never been a popular person, after all; if anything, she was the opposite of a popular person. The fact she was close to her highschool teacher was proof of it, to be honest.

Of course it had to do with the fact Takane didn't like anything or anyone. But sometimes, telling herself she was alone because she wanted to was a way to cope with no one liking her.

But after meeting Haruka in her second year of working at this school, when he starts the semester in August's insufferable heat, getting up in the morning became a little less horrible. At first, she didn't talk to him because she never talked to anyone and she was too busy not caring in the slightest about people at work.

True, he caught her eye on his first day, but only because they seemed to be around the same age, which fortunately made her share the title of "that fresh out of college teacher". Them being so young and already having a stable job at an educational institution meant they knew someone who helped them get it, which made the veteran teachers scoff at them for their luck. Takane could relate to that, so she already disliked him less than the rest, which said a lot in itself.

They only really started talking around two weeks after he had started working, because he had shamelessly asked her, in _their work environment_  (very loudly, it's worth mentioning), if the keychain she had in her purse was Dead Bullet 1989 merch. At the moment, she was _so_  used to only reading the title of her favorite game that she physically froze at the sound of _one of her coworkers_ , to whom she has never spoken a word to, saying it out loud.

She had shyly said yes, not seeing the point in lying. Haruka's answer came after rummaging in his bag for a set of keys, to show her that he owned the exact same keychain.

They chatted in the hallways, in the teachers' lounge, and if she's feeling generous enough she'll give him a ride back home so he didn't have to take the train.

(It made her realize how much she craved someone to share her interests with. Finally sharing lunch period with someone didn't suck).

"Hmmm... the dates on those papers, Takane! My god, you should've given those back by now!"

Still, there are times in which she'd like to give him a wedgie.

"Leave me alone. Not all of us are freaks who like their jobs, you know."

He laughs, "I'm just excited to see how much of what I explained they actually understood."

"In my case, I couldn't care less," she yawns, and Haruka shakes his head as a nag. "What? If it were up to me, I'd teach sleeping theory."

Maybe it's because of that that her students like her, she thinks. True, it was probably also because she often swore and sometimes even let them snooze off for a few minutes. But since no one told on her, Takane believed the situation to be mutual consideration.

Haruka lets out another laugh, a louder one this time, that sends more than a few glares from the other teachers their way. Takane couldn't bring herself to care; this guy was so stupid, always laughing at her very bad jokes.

"Sleeping theory! That's priceless!" he answered in a lower tone, covering his mouth as he continued to snicker. His cheeks were slightly red from drawing so much attention to them. "It's funny because that's not a real subject!"

"You don't need to explain the joke, Haruka. It's bad as it is."

He shook his head, trying to focus on the tests again, still letting out giggles.

Haruka was different from her, though. Her students liked her because they had a thing in common, which was how much she and the group wanted to be at school (which was: not at all). But him? Oh, he was liked because he was actually good at what he did.

He, unlike her, doesn't sit on the desk instead of the chair. He smiles a lot during class (which just amazes her because it's... _math_ ) and his hands moved continuously while he talked, which was intriguing since... well, math. His class is usually quiet and listens to him, and it shows on the tests results that he, in fact, is a good teacher. Takane's not sure she can say the same about herself.

Sighing, she decides to stop playing around and takes her pen's cap off.

As she looked at the first paper, absently seeing a clumsy drawing of an anime character as one of the answers, Takane didn't feel very positive about this class' grades.

"A kid told me something weird during first period today, you know?"

It's true she just told herself she'd focus on this, but there was something still bugging her. Takane looked at the dumb answers the student had written and drew a big X next to it as she waited for Haruka's response.

"Hm? What did they say?"

"They..." she bites her lip. Why did she bring this up? Did she want to procrastinate so much she put herself in the position to explain this? "They– they thought you and I went home together because they saw you get in my car yesterday."

Why is this so weird to talk about? It should be fine. Haruka and her are friends; they should be able to laugh at the fact one of their students implied something like this.

So why couldn't she just laugh it off?

She steals a glance of him, and sees the way his hand stops scribbling for just one second. It resumes its job pretty quickly though, as Haruka hums, "These kids have a wild imagination, don't they?"

What's with the stupid disappointed feeling she had in her stomach? What, was she expecting him to answer something else?

"Yeah, they do."

Takane sighs as she writes the number 1 as a grade next to Kisaragi Momo's name, although her mind continued to be everywhere but in these tests.

* * *

 

"And you see, Ms. Enomoto, I really need to know my grade!"

"I _promise_  I'll give you the grades soon, Amamiya."

As the day continued to uneventfully progress, a junior was holding Takane down in the hallway today too. He's been annoying her about his grades for like a week now, and she couldn't wait to be done with the tests so she could get him off her back. In truth though, she hasn't even touched the paperwork of his class.

"But you've been saying that for weeks now! My dad's starting to think I'm lying because I did bad!" he whined. "Can't you at least tell me if out of the bunch you did grade, did you see mine? Do you remember if I did well or not?"

Poor innocent soul. He thinks she has "graded a bunch" already. _Please_.

She still makes a thoughtful face, placing one of her fingers on her chin to feign concentration, "Hmmm, now that I think about it, I think I did grade your test..."

"Really!? What did I get?"

"You got a... WAIT 'TILL NEXT WEEK," she exclaimed, making the expectant Hibiya jump a little. Takane smiled at him and patted his shoulder, repeating, "I'll be done soon, dwarf. Now be gone."

Hibiya frowned, but mumbled a reluctant "fiiine" before doing as told. Looking past his teacher, the boy sighs and mumbles, "Morning, Mr. Kokonose..."

Takane jumps at the name, quickly turning around to find Haruka standing behind her, smiling like always, "Jesus, Haruka! You spooked me!"

"Sorry, didn't mean to!" he giggles, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I was just waiting for you to be done talking to Amamiya-kun! Ah, by the way,"

Hibiya looked at the pair with a questioning face, but when Haruka's attention was on him, he raised an eyebrow. He didn't even try to pretend he wasn't grumpy.

"Congrats again on your math test."

His words, however, do make him soften his expression, "Huh? You still haven't given those back, though."

"I haven't? Whoops! Forget about what I said!"

Hibiya makes a surprised face, nodding in understanding with sudden enthusiasm, "Oh! Okay– um, thank you very much!"

Haruka waves a hand as if to say it's not a problem, and turns to Takane once Hibiya walks away with a big smile on his face. She crosses her arms, knowing very well Haruka pretended the whole thing to make the boy feel better.

"I'm not sure you're supposed to call your students names like "dwarf"."

"I will call them whatever I want. In fact, that one was a nice name! I often prefer the term gremlins to refer to them."

"That's so mean!" Haruka exclaims, but still laughed at it. "Gremlins are cute at first, though."

"Um, they really aren't."

"I don't think we watched the same movie, then."

"Excuse me? How dare you. I'm an 80's classics pro."

"Aren't they the best!?" he said, genuinely excited. After realising that he was too loud (to his standards though, since he's calm person; Takane's definitely worse when she's excited), he clears his throat and goes. "Ah, what I wanted to tell you is that I actually bought that game you told me about yesterday."

Nonplussed, Takane wonders if she heard him right, "You _did_?"

"I looked it up when I went home last night," he explained. "And, ah, the plot was far too interesting so I kind of impulsively went online and bought it! The art is so pretty, Takane, it makes me want to cry!"

" _Right_? Wait until you hear the soundtrack, Haruka!" she excitedly rubs her palms together to keep herself from clapping like a child would. She was about to add something about how great the game's plotline was when she catches her name being mentioned in the bustle of the school,

"Did you hear that just now? Mr. Kokonose and Ms. Enomoto called each other by their first names."

Takane goes quiet, and Haruka looks at her with an inquiring smile. His face questioned her sudden silence, so that must mean he didn't hear the same as she did.

"What's wrong, Ta–"

She holds a finger in front of his face, which is enough for him to stop talking. She focuses her ears in that one conversation that was somewhere in the classrooms or even the halls. Wherever it was, it must be close, or else she wouldn't have been able to hear it.

"Well, obviously. They're dating after all."

"Wait, what? For real?"

"Yeah, some kids saw them go home together yesterday. Whatever, just hurry up and move so I can buy my drink next!"

"Oh, sorry!"

Takane manages to track the voices with her eyes to the two kids talking over the vending machines, which was not very far away from them. She feels herself tremble.

"Shit."

"Language!" Haruka nags, suddenly letting go of his smile. "We're in a school, Takane!"

"Shut up, nerd," she shoots back, but she can't bring herself to say anything further than that. This is bad.

"Seriously, what's wrong all of a sudden?"

Of course that the last thing she'd want or expect was for there to be a rumor about her and the only friend she's ever managed to make, but it probably wasn't very tragic, right? What was she supposed to do? Rush over those two kids and tell them they got it wrong?

She just shakes her head, deciding to, for once, shrug off something like this. Who cared.

"No, it's nothing."

* * *

 

It wasn't nothing.

"Who asked who out, miss?"

Takane was very close to ripping out her own hair in order to focus all her anger on _something_  and avoid beating up all of her students.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Now, turn on your computers–"

"I'm talking about you and Mr. Kokonose, miss!" Kisaragi Momo very seriously clarifies, still doing as told like the rest of her classmates.

Takane only ignored her, turning her back to them to start writing in the blackboard. The sooner they dropped this topic, the better, and that certainly wouldn't happen if she provided an answer.

It's already been more than a week of this. She doesn't know how long she'll be able to take it without murdering at least one of them.

"Yeah, we think you're very sweet together!" Takane felt very disappointed when even one of the most well-behaved students, Seto Kousuke, chimed in. "With all due respect, of course, miss. We would never want to mess with your personal life, but we're very curious!"

"You and Mr. Kokonose are the nicest teachers, after all! It's like you were meant for each other!" she turns her head just enough to steal a quick glance at the direction the voice came from. Kozakura Mary, a girl Takane always has trouble remembering the name of, since she never talked. She couldn't believe _this_  is what made her participate in class. "The little dates you have during lunch are so cute!"

She continues writing on the board, pressing the chalk harder against it.

_Don't give in, don't give in. Just proceed with the class like you normally would._

"Miss, are you two gonna get married?"

"Ohh, and if you do, will you invite us?"

"And if you have kids will they come to this school?"

The chalk breaks, and with the impact one of her rings hits the board and makes a loud noise that makes the children shut up.

Chalk dust falls as she turns around wearing a very, _very_  angry face.

" _Look_ ," Takane starts, and the scary tone she carried in her voice made the students shift uncomfortably in their seats and glance at one another (which makes her roll her eyes. It's not like she was going to kill them. At least not yet). " _Mr. Kokonose_  and I are coworkers and nothing more, and everything you are saying is not only inappropiate but also annoying as hell, so if I hear ONE MORE PERSON mention Haruka's name I will– Haruka!?"

When she sees his face smiling through the classroom door's window, she squeaks his name in the least intimidating way possible, so the seriousness she had managed to build up goes down the drain. All the students start giggling.

Ugh, this stupid class is never going to take her seriously again, will it?

Reluctantly, Takane goes over to open the door herself, because if she gestured Haruka to come in maybe the children would take the chance to drag him into this as well. It was a situation she did not want to be a part of.

" _What_?" she asks, as soon as she opens the door and in the lowest tone of voice she could manage. The kids have gone quiet, too, most likely to eavesdrop the conversation, and she was not going to give them that satisfaction, so she closes the door behind her.

Haruka raises an eyebrow, still carrying a confused smile as he tried to peek past her at the students. Giving up on it, he finally looks back at her and erases the previous confusion with a (according to Takane's heart, very cute) smile,

"Oh, it's just that you forgot this at the teachers' lounge, Takane!"

She looks down to see what he was holding; her purse. She smacks her own forehead, "Dammit, I'm so careless!"

"Language. Also it's fine, happens to everyone," Haruka reassured, handing her her things. She takes it, ignoring his reproach about language as she continued to whisper curses at herself. "For example, once, I almost come to work in slippers because I forgot to put my shoes on!"

She chokes out a laugh, absolutely forgetting everything that was haunting her mind at the moment. Haruka was magic like that, it appeared. "Oh my god! How did you even manage that!?"

"I don't know, I was sleepy. I realized when I was at the train station!"

"That's so stupid!"

"Yeah, so don't feel bad about little mistakes like these!" he says, and she focuses on his smile for a moment. God, he really is baby faced. He's probably mistaken for a student all the time. "Well, I'll be going back now."

"Oh," at his words, her bubble is popped. The headache is back. "You have a free period?"

"Yes! I'd like to take the chance to finish grading yesterday's homework."

"...Okay. See you later then."

"See you! Work hard!"

"Yup, you too."

She waves at him from where she's standing and he does the same as he walked, which was probably not safe since he wasn't seeing where he was going. They just wave at each other like two losers until Haruka has to turn on the corner, and then Takane is left by herself again.

In front of a classroom full of annoying brats.

Sighing, she goes inside again, remembering when she mentioned to Haruka that she liked calling the kids gremlins and he argued that gremlins were cute. Honestly, just how ridiculous?

"Aw, miss, the smile you have on your face is so lovely!"

She feels her whole body tense up at Mary's comment, immediately erasing the so-called "lovely smile" off of her face.

"Did he come here to return you your things?" Kano asked, watching her with mischievous eyes. "Did you forget them at his place?"

"Please stop," she just begs, and that _does_  surprise them. "There is nothing going on between him and I. For real. Please just let it go and let me work."

She puts down her purse in her desk, ignoring the stinging discomfort in her head. She hated the feeling, she despised it. Takane felt disappointed she couldn't talk longer with Haruka, and that was the stupidest thing in the galaxy. She needed to teach a class, for God's sake.

She thinks that maybe her dejected and honest tone would make them be a bit considerate with her, though. She really hoped so at least.

"Oh, Teach," Momo goes, with a sad voice. She puts her hands on her face, dreamily looking at her. "You and Mr. Kokonose really aren't together!"

She felt relieved, "Yes, Kisaragi, that's exactly right. Thank y–"

"But you _want_  to, don't you?"

"What!?"

She didn't have the time to say anything else; everyone started talking over each other, excitedly screaming over the same idea.

"So all this time you guys weren't dating, just pining after each other!?"

"Oh my god! Teach, you _have_  to ask him out!"

"You looked so happy just now just because you were with him two seconds and you aren't even together I'm going to cry–"

"Love is real, people. Let's go home!"

They only shut up after Takane yells at them with all she has. She continues the class with a hoarse voice and a sore throat.

* * *

 

When Friday came around, she felt the happiest she's been in a while.

Her heels echoed the halls as she walked; the school was very quiet since most of the students had gone home already. There were still some of them wrapping things up in the club rooms or studying, but that didn't concern her, so she really didn't care.

Heavy clouds hovered in the orange sky over the very humid air, indicating it'd start raining soon, so she wanted to get home soon.

She has a car though, so she wouldn't have to walk under the rain anyway, but still. Which reminded her...

Would Haruka want a ride? It'd come handy to him if it started raining. And honestly, she'd feel guilty the entire weekend knowing she had let him go home under the rain, without even offering him to take him home. It wasn't a problem for her, after all.

Thing is, she has no idea where he is. He wasn't in the teachers' lounge, nor any of the classrooms she has walked by. By this point, he'd already come to find her if he had wanted to, so Takane guessed that maybe he had already gone home.

The thought saddened her. It meant she wouldn't get to see him again until Monday.

 _Pull yourself together, you idiot!_ , she mentally yells to herself. _You can't possibly be looking forward to a Monday, geez!_

She's been waiting for the weekend the entire week, just like she has always done ever since being born. She tautens the hold of her purse in her shoulder, angry with herself. She was being too clingy.

_Just how stupid is that guy making me?_

_I should just go home by myself, then._

_I'm not going to be held down by someone I'm not even sure is still here at all!_

She continued to think things like that, but in the end, Takane found herself sitting in the steps of the school gates.

Her tube skirt was digging itself in her stomach, and her legs felt like they were becoming one. These clothes weren't very good for a position like this, she guesses. One of the reasons she was looking forward to getting home was to change, after all.

Lighting herself a cigarette, she tries to forget about the fact she was still at school. If someone found her, she'd be in deep shit, but Takane didn't care at this point. Still, as the world seemed to hate her, as soon as she lets out the first puff of smoke, she hears steps behind her.

"We're in school, Takane," she feels herself relax when she only hears Haruka's voice. And then, that was a whole new reason to freak out. Oh god, will he think she's disgusting for smoking?

Takane clears her throat, trying not to show the shame she felt. God, whatever, it's just smoking, right?

Haruka sits down next to her, and flashes her a smile. "I didn't know you smoked."

She tries not to pay attention at the proximity. He really didn't have to sit _this_  close, honestly. Their shoulders were touching, and their legs were brushing. Takane felt herself shiver at the contact.

"The more you know," she tries to play it cool, but internally screams. She quickly lets out another cloud of smoke, making sure to send it to Haruka's opposite direction. "Why, you want one?"

"Ew," is all he says, shaking his head. His nose wrinkles a bit to emphasize how much he apparently disliked that habit, but Takane wasn't about to put down a perfectly good cigarette just because he appeared out of nowhere. "Those things will kill you, you know that, right?"

"Come hear all the things smokers are tired of hearing with Kokonose Haruka, everyone, local nerd who plays sudoku for fun," she jokes, and Haruka pushes her lightly to make her stop. Takane rolls her eyes, "For the record, I only do this when I'm stressed."

"Aren't you always stressed, though?"

She almost chokes with the smoke.

_Am I that easy to figure out?_

"I'll put it down if you want me to," she says, even though just a few seconds ago she was telling herself she would never do that. Haruka raises an eyebrow, slightly confused. "I – I mean! Smoking around people who don't smoke sucks, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable, so..."

"Ah, you're so thoughtful, Takane," he just says, letting out a dreamy sigh. "I wish my dad would have that type of consideration when it comes to smoking! But you don't need to. It's not like you started smoking when I was already here, anyway. And you're even sending the smoke the other way! You're honestly too nice..."

"Your dad smokes around you?" she lets out a snort. "I smell a bad parent."

Haruka shrugs, quickly dropping the subject, "I thought you'd already gone home."

"Right back at you," despite what he had said, Takane presses the cigarette down against the step to put it out. She sees the glimpse of his thankful smile through the corner of her eye, but she ignores it. "I... had to take care of some things."

_It's not like I was wandering around looking for you or anything._

"Hm, me too," Haruka nods. "Which reminds me, how do you know Mr. Tateyama?"

The question takes her by surprise, so Takane raises an eyebrow. When she turns to see Haruka properly, she realizes why she hadn't done that. Because of how close they were sitting, his face was _also_  very close. He didn't even flinch.

Seriously, does this guy even know about personal space?

"He was my highschool teacher. He landed me this job, actually," she answers, still slightly puzzled with Haruka's specific curiosity. "Why?"

"I was just in his office, and he had a picture with you in his desk," he explains, and Takane has to physically avoid her jaw dropping open. That old hag! "It's strange, to see a chummy picture of a teacher and just one student."

"Oh my god," she buries her face on her palms, not even caring about messing up the very little makeup she wore. "That's so embarrassing, I can't believe that guy."

"And he called you by your first name as well, so I thought you were close!" Haruka concludes, clapping his hands together. Pointing to her hair, which was tied in a bun like usual, he added, "Also, I would have _never_  guessed you used to put your hair up in pigtails! You looked so cute!"

"Stop," she begs. "Just stop."

The man just laughs it off, but Takane wasn't going to be able to get the word "cute" out of her head during the weekend. He was just making fun of her, anyway. Right?

"He helped me with this job too, you know," Haruka suddenly says, as if that was genuinely interesting. "He was my teacher as well. But since I was homeschooled, he was only one of the lot."

"You were homeschooled?" she blinks, incredulous, before letting out a laugh. "That's so rad! You didn't have to deal with how obnoxious highschools were!"

"What? But it was horrible," he laughed back. "You're the first friend I ever made because of that!"

She swallows. A person shouldn't say such a sad thing while laughing.

To be honest, she had thought someone like him had load of friends, and has had a nice highschool experience. Turns out, he didn't have one at all. It made her feel pathetic, in a way. He didn't have friends because he didn't have the chance to make any. Instead, she didn't because she was the worst.

The dramatic sigh she lets out makes Haruka pull a worried face, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she shakes her head. "I'm just thinking that compared to you, I'm pretty obnoxious."

"What!" he raises his voice, making her jump. When she looks at him, he looked authentically offended she'd say something like this. "No way, Takane! You're the coolest person I've ever met!"

"You haven't _met_  a lot of people, though, so that's not very reassuring."

She laughs, trying to lighten the mood again, but Haruka wasn't having it, "Maybe. But you're super, super amazing, Takane. Don't ever doubt that."

He offers the purest smile in the world, and Takane feels her heart beating the shit out of her other organs at the sight of it. She digs her nails on her thigh, on the fabric of her skirt, immediately looking away so Haruka wouldn't see how red her face had became.

Just what was this stupid feeling?

"...You'd be more amazing if you didn't smoke, though."

When Haruka makes that addition, Takane pushes him with all of her strength.

(...)

The ride home was quiet, but she didn't feel uncomfortable with the silence.

In the end, she had offered him that stupid ride, which he had accepted while enthusiastically prattling about her being very nice and yadda yadda. She glances at him in the passenger seat, even if she couldn't see his face as he looked through the window. It has started raining shortly after they got in the car.

"Takane?"

"Yeah?"

"What did you want to be when you were a kid?"

She rolls her eyes, an amused smile tugging the corner of her lips. What a nerd.

"Nothing," she answers, and Haruka immediately looks back at her. "I didn't really know what to do with my life, I didn't, _and don't_ , want to work. Buuut, I'm good with computers, and Mr. Tateyama told me he could help me get a job as a teacher, and here we are. It was natural, I guess."

She couldn't really look back at him since her eyes were busy on the road, but when she steals another glance and sees his uncertain expression, she raises an eyebrow.

Before she could ask him what was up, Haruka says, "I don't believe you."

" _What?_ " she snickers. "It's the truth!"

"There's _gotta_  be something you wanted to do if it's not this!"

"I'm good with tech, so–"

"You being good with tech isn't the same as you  _liking_  tech," Haruka insisted. "You're supposed to like your job."

"No one likes their jobs, Haruka, even if it's what they like. Don't be dumb," she sighs. "Sticking to what you know how to do is easier and less stressful, you know?"

"And yet," he mutters, "you're always stressed."

A part of her wants to spit him in the face, because it made her really angry. It made her angry that he figures her out so easily, when she's absolutely stuck trying to read every single face he makes and failing at it everytime. The other part of her, however...

There's a pause, which she's sure wasn't as heavy and annoying for Haruka as it was for her. Takane takes a deep breath,

"Promise me you won't laugh."

He offers a confused face, but doesn't ask for details, "I promise I won't laugh, whatever you have to say."

"I..." she starts, and tightens the hold of the steering wheel. Takane sighs again, "I wanted to be a criminologist, okay?"

She thought Haruka would pause to think for the correct way to answer so he didn't offend the dumb thing she just said, or maybe just downright break the promise and laugh at her. But he actually doesn't even take one second to give an answer,

"Really? That's so cool!" he chirps. Takane tries to ignore the relief flooding her mind. "I can totally see you doing something like that! Why didn't you go through with it?"

"I can't go through with it if I didn't even try in the first place," she mumbles, loud enough for Haruka to hear. "This... this way I had an assured job. I did it because–"

God, she feels so dumb.

"Because it was easier," she finishes. The whole thing made her feel bad; she couldn't believe she was still haunted by her fresh out of highschool self pushing at the back of her mind any desire for a job. "Still, it's cool that you like what you do, y'know? It's a nice way to face the world, I guess."

She lets out a laugh, hoping to take the chance to yet again make fun of Haruka being a _math teacher_  of all things, but he goes quiet. Finding it strange, she looks at him when she stops in a red light.

She's about to ask him what's wrong when he speaks up, "I don't like math."

Takane stares at him, looking for any indication of a joke on his face. She finds none; maybe she heard him wrong?

"I hate it, actually," he laughs, turning to lock eyes with her. He's smiling a tired smile, as if he had just taken something off his chest. "It... it's so _boring_."

She totally agreed, and normally, she'd feel like kissing him for saying something like that, but this was weird. Takane was absolutely sure that math was the love of his life.

"I'm good at it, though," he continues. "I didn't particularly dislike it, either. But going over the _same things_  every _single_ day has made me come to despise it, haha..."

Haruka laughs again, probably in an attempt of hiding how upset this made him.

He perks up, stating, "I originally wanted to be an art teacher!"

"Art?" she raises an eyebrow, absently cursing in her mind the slightly tarnished glass of the car. "You draw?"

It was true she sometimes saw Haruka scribbling away when he had nothing to do or was simply ignoring responsabilites (which wasn't very true, but the thought makes Takane feel better with herself), but she had never given it much thought.

The two often left friendly notes in each other's things as well; hers are simple things like "math sucks" (something she kind of felt bad about now) and Haruka's are always messages of encouragement to grade her papers and also little doodles of characters they like.

Now that she thinks about it, it was kind of obvious.

"Yes, I love drawing!" Haruka confirms, nodding, although his tone becomes dejected again when he starts explaining what happened, "But... but my father told me that wasn't a real job, you see. So I tried to look for an alternative he'd be okay with so I didn't have to work in his research lab like he wanted me to. At least, if he allowed me to be a teacher at all I'd be happy, and in the end he was satisfied with math or physics. Physics sort of makes my head spin, so–"

"Your dad sounds like an asshole."

Takane doesn't see how he reacts; she focuses on the road, and advances once the light changes.

"Parents who think they can control their children's lives are the absolute worst," she dwells, feeling her eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean "an alternative he'd be okay with"? Who cares if he's okay with it?"

Haruka audibly gasps, and he sounded panicked. What? Does he think his father was going to jump at them from the backseat or something?

"It's _your_  life, Haruka."

"You sound exactly like Mr. Tateyama right now."

He chuckled, and she felt angry. Haruka probably didn't care about what she was telling him; knowing Kenjirou, he most likely has said these things to him as well, especially if he was present during the time Haruka was wondering what to do.

"I know it must be hard to accept that you can and _should_  think for yourself," she declares, and instantly feels Haruka's eyes on her again. "But... but you should work on it, y'know."

Takane didn't _want_  to be shrugged off because he's heard these things before. He mentioned being homeschooled, so she supposed he was overprotected as a kid; god, his whole life must have been planned out on a timeline or something. So she tries to be comprehensive.

She pulls over; she can see the building he lives in already.

"I don't know how to do that, though," Haruka says after a moment of silence, looking down.

Takane puts a hand on his shoulder, and offers a grin, "I can help you! I'm an expert in doing whatever the hell I want."

"You sure are," she feels accomplished when he answers with a light laugh. Still, she feels herself freeze when he places his hand on top of hers, "That'd be nice, though. In return, I could teach you how to feel less stressed and abandon that gross habit of yours."

"Very funny."

They were already at his destination. Ordinarily, they'd say bye to each other right now, but neither of them moved.

"So you also dislike your job, huh," is all she says, because she feels nervous and honestly she had no idea _what_  to say.

"Yes," he affirms with a chuckle, and doesn't drop the fond eyes he's looking at her with. "But, somehow, I still find myself looking forward to Monday everytime!"

He still hasn't let go of her hand. It's not like she was making any effort in getting it away either, though.

"It's weird," he carries on, looking away. It was pretty dark by now, especially inside the car, but Takane thinks he might have a red face. "I feel so clingy, you know? But..."

She swallows.

He still fixes his eyes back to her rather quickly, letting her see his blushed cheeks very clearly, "But I can't stand the thought of not seeing you again until then."

It's then when she stops thinking altogether, instinctively leaning towards him as soon as he says those words. She's promptly stuck midway because of the seatbelt, so she has to take a second to unfasten it, a second in which Haruka becomes bluntly aware of her initial intention.

So when she's freed, she encounters the most flustered person she's ever seen. However, Takane doesn't take a moment to appreciate that expression on him at all, as she was still busy not letting any logical thoughts mess with her brain.

Haruka lets out a small and very nervous _"ah!"_  when she grabs his tie and pulls it towards her, carefully clashing their lips together. Unsure of what to do with her hands, she just keeps hold of the tie. Her stomach was practically stinging her, and she didn't know how to identify the reason as to why. Was it anxiety? Nervousness? Happiness?

She hears the sound of the other seatbelt coming back to place, and suddenly the kiss is a lot more comfortable. He leans her way too, awkwardly placing his hands on her cheeks.

_Relief?_

His skin was freezing, and it reminds her of the times their hands would brush by accident and she would complain about how cold they were. This time, however, she didn't mind at all.

Haruka has a dazed face and a pretty heavy breathing rythm once they break apart, which impresses her because they really didn't kiss for long. He places a hand on his chest, to the side of his heart, and deeply exhaled. His other hand was now on his own face, probably trying to cool down his blush.

To be honest, he looked like a complete nervous disaster. Which also served as the cutest he's ever looked.

He flashes her another of his smiles (a very red one, in this case), but keeps quiet. Most likely because of the condition he's in, Takane feels weirdly confident. Enough to at least be the first to say something, anyway,

"My stupid students wouldn't stop talking about you," she says, which is probably not very romantic, but that didn't worry her. Haruka, as expected, just laughs. "So even when I was working I couldn't stop thinking about your dumb face!"

She bangs her head against the wheel, making the horn make a sudden, but short, sound.

"I don't want to say bye yet! How pathetic is that!?"

He puts a hand on her back, and when she looks at him, he seems a lot more composed.

"Then, come home with me this time."

She might've smacked him in the head after he said that, but Takane still gets out of the car with him.


End file.
